Pordenone

Venetian School. Giovanni Antonio, called Licinio, or more generally Pordenone, from his birthplace. There are no examples of his work in English galleries.

PARIS, LOUVRE

PORTRAIT OF A MAN Half length, turned slightly to the right, the head turned towards the left: A man of mature years with a black beard. His right hand rests on the hilt of his dagger, his left arm rests on the base of a pilaster in the background.

Ascribed to Titian in the official catalogue.

“The drawing is not as simple, the colour not as fresh or as natural, as Titian’s; it is, in fact, a very fine production of Pordenone’s brush.” (C. and C.)

VENICE, ACADEMY

THE GLORY OF ST. LAURENCE GIUSTIANI St. Laurence is standing in a recess at the back of a chapel facing us, his right hand raised in benediction, his left holding a large book. He is in a white surplice and black skull cap. The lower half of his figure is concealed by that of St. Francis, who kneels in the left foreground before the lamb held by St. John the Baptist, who stands on the right clad only in a skin, his left foot resting on a fragment of a pillar. Behind these stand on the left St. Augustme, with mitre and crosier, and on the right St. Bernard, beyond whom are seen the heads of two kneeling figures close to St. Laurence. The ceiling of the recess behind St. Laurence’s head is frescoed with two peacocks.

Supposed to have been painted in 1532 in settlement of a debt of 100 ducats, the claim for which had been bequeathed to the Friars of Santa Maria dell Orto in Venice.

THE VIRGIN OF MERCY A square canvas; the Virgin stands on clouds with arms outstretched, her mantle held out wide on either side by four baby angels. Below her, and behind a low parapet running across the foreground of the picture, is seen the bust of a monk in prayer, on either side of whom are grouped along the parapet numerous members of the Ottobon family, for whom the picture was painted-five men on the left, and five women and a little boy on the right. Behind these stand under the Virgin’s hands, and backed by her outspread mantle, Blessed Angelo on the left with a sword fixed in his head, and on the right Blessed Simon Stock with a lily over his shoulder. Plain background.

MADRID, PRADO

THE VIRGIN BETWEEN ST. ANTHONY AND ST. ROCH. (See Giorgione.)

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. Michelangelo

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